Repurpose Leftover Taco Meat Into The Best Soups Of Your Life

Tacos are not only easy to make, they're also sure to be a hit for any dinner, whether it's a casual family meal or a party for friends. But one theme that remains consistent (apart from smiling faces and full bellies) is there are bound to be leftovers. There are endless ways to use that leftover meat that not only prevent wasted food but let you be as creative as your imagination will allow. Aside from the multiple ways you can serve tacos to begin with, you can add the meat to scrambled eggs, to salads, or even make it into a southwestern wrap. But one repurposing hack gives you one of the best comfort foods of all time: soup.

One of the problems with using leftover meat to create a new dish is that the meat tends to dry out a bit more each time you cook it — taco meat is no exception. In order to keep the meat from becoming tough and inedible, it helps to use it in a dish that has plenty of liquid to help maintain that moisture content. This is true of soup regardless of whether you're using a broth or cream base.

In addition, soup doesn't need to cook at high heat (especially if the meat has already been cooked), so the low and slow method helps maintain the tenderness of the meat. You'll get a delicious second-day meal and no one will know it's a repurposed meal unless you actually tell them.

Leftover taco meat (whether it's ground or shredded pork, beef, or chicken) is actually an ideal ingredient to build a beautiful soup thanks to the depth of flavors taco meat brings to the table. One of the biggest mistakes cooks make when making a homemade soup is not doing enough to layer the flavors. Having already-seasoned taco meat gives you an incredibly complex flavor base to build on. 

If you want a south of the border-flavored soup like a taco soup, half the work is already done for you. If you want to go beyond the Mexican flavor profile and do something like a cheeseburger soup, you can still build on the flavors with burger ingredients like cheese and bacon but use the taco meat base to bring an added spice kick to your soup. Chicken or turkey taco meat will also give an equally flavorful boost to a basic chicken noodle soup.

Leftover taco meat can serve as the perfect protein for a vegetable soup while adding some spice and heat that will make the soup more interesting and complex. Cabbage roll soup, for example, gives you the perfect base palette to play with. Or you can take an already protein-packed soup like a bean or lentil soup and add taco meat to it to give it a more universal appeal for picky eaters, like children who may not be thrilled with the idea of having a basic bean soup for dinner.